


Queen of Attolia

by SneakyHufflepuff



Category: The Avengers (2012), The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: AU, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Gen, Torture (ish)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-01
Updated: 2012-12-02
Packaged: 2017-11-20 00:11:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/579149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SneakyHufflepuff/pseuds/SneakyHufflepuff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner. Here be spoilers for the series (which is excellent YA fiction, and you should read).</p><p>Written for a prompt by rattyjol.</p><p>  He is the Thief<br/>She is the Queen<br/>He breaks into her palace<br/>She cuts off his hand<br/>He steals her heart<br/><strike>and then they get married and live happily ever after</strike><br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

When Natasha is six the King of Eddis sends a peace mission to the court of Attolia. The Attolian palace is overridden by children from the royal family of Eddis. One of the children, a boy close to manhood, moves with natural grace. She is envious, awkward and sweltering in her court dress. He teaches her how to walk on her hands and ruffles her hair. Crown Princess Maria of Eddis spends most of her time in the training yards, wearing breeches and joking with her boy-cousins. Maria and Natasha whisper jokes in each others ears at parties, trying to keep their faces impassive. Natasha, the younger by three years, is the first to break into giggles. Her father, the King of Attolia, is not pleased. Princess Maria hides steel under her bright blue eyes and Natasha wants to be like her so much that she begs her nursemaid to dye Natasha’s hair. Her nursemaid refuses but finds her a pair of breeches to wear in secret. When the delegation from Eddis leaves the palace is echoing and empty.

When Natasha is seven her father swears at the elusive Thief who has stolen state secrets from the inner chambers of the palace. The King curses Eddis and decides that Attolia needs a thief of its own. Little Natalia, ignored in favor of her brother for so long, finally has a purpose. Her old nursemaid who read her fairy tales with happy endings is replaced by a younger woman who reads stories of honor and duty.

When she is eight she learns how to pick a lock and throw a knife. She discovers the secret passages honeycombing the palace and uses them to escape from her tutors, men with hard hands and harder eyes. She becomes the spider in the walls, watching the schemes of the court through mirrors and carefully placed paintings. The workings of the kingdom are a fragile tapestry, woven and rewoven. Natasha does not like the picture that it makes.

When she is nine she is betrothed to one of the border barons. Natasha is young enough to cry but old enough to wait until she is in the familiar safety of the walls. After she finishes crying her face shifts back into a mask. She reaches the passage outside her room to find a handkerchief stuck in the space where the fake wall swings to become a door. It’s white with green olive leaves embroidered around the borders.

When Natasha is ten her father dies. She realizes that being trained as a thief is the same as being trained as an assassin. Her brother takes the throne and already Natasha can see the elaborate tapestry of court intrigue begin to strangle him.

When she is eleven she befriends the guard captain, James Barnes. He and his men are enchanted with the little flame-haired princess. She takes them water and asks childish questions, all the time listening and learning. James notices the way her eyes follow the mens' swords and offers to train her in secret. She accepts. He doesn’t question how her hand-eye coordination got so good or how strong she is for a girl-child.

When she is twelve her brother sends her on her first mission. A minor noble plots treachery. She kills him in his sleep with a silk cord wrapped around his neck and disappears back into the walls. Her brother begins to see plots everywhere, creating enemies where there were friends. Her hands soon become drenched in red.

When she is thirteen James teaches her how to dance. Not the staid dances of the nobles, but fast dances that leave her breathless and laughing. She wheels in circles, wondering what it would be like to be just Natasha without the title of Princess to weigh her down.

When she is fourteen her brother dies. The doctors speak of natural causes but their eyes say poison. Natasha’s husband-to-be, thirty years her senior, arrives at the palace the next day. When he enters the throne room Natasha nods to James. The guard captain steps forwards and shoots her suitor in the chest with a crossbow. More guards filter into the room alongside James as the body hits the ground.

“Attolia already has a ruler,” Natasha informs the shocked crowd. “Would anyone else like to propose marriage?”

No one speaks. Natasha smiles serenely from her throne.

When Natasha is fifteen she sells the bulk of the royal jewelry to free herself from the debt her father and brother collected. To the rest she adds hidden needles and hollow gems that swing open. Her dresses are fitted with hidden knives. Natasha trades favors and keeps the barons squabbling amongst themselves. She survives her first assassination attempt with ease.

When she is sixteen the officer corps of the army is struck with a strange illness that strikes only the corrupt and grossly incompetent. Natasha promotes by merit, not rank, and uses her newly full treasury to increase wages. She would not have survived the second assassination attempts without the loyalty of her guards. It is not quite love, but it warms her all the same.

When she is seventeen she forgets how to laugh.

When she is eighteen the Thief of Eddis steals the Tesseract from her vault. As far as she knows it is a worthless relic, but she is furious. The theft is a statement of power from tiny Eddis, a reminder that even with a small army Eddis still has her Thief who can strike at any time. Natasha sets vicious traps throughout the secret passageways she explored as a child.

When she is nineteen her guards capture the Thief of Eddis for the first time. She sweeps down to the dungeons to interrogate him, James at her side. A guard, chest swelled in the triumph of the capture, hands her the Thief’s bow as she enters the prison. Barton is chained to the wall, one eye swollen, breathing labored from what her doctors inform her are two cracked ribs. He looks up at the sounds of footsteps, letting out a whistle as his eyes run along her body.

“Princess. It’s been a long time. You sure grew up nice,” he says with a half-hearted leer.

“Pity I can’t say the same,” she returns. “You may address me as Your Majesty.”

“Well, now that you have me, what do you plan to do with me, sweetheart?”

James kicks the Thief for his presumption. Natasha sees Barton’s fear, poorly hidden under the bravado. His eyes dart from side to side and his arms pull, almost unconsciously, against the chains.

“Your bow is thing of beauty,” Natasha says, running her fingers along its length. His bow, famed throughout Eddis and Attolia both, is well-used and lovingly maintained. “What would you give me for it?”

“Anything you want, I can steal,” Barton boasts, relaxing back into the wall.

“I want your skills. Your knowledge of Sounis’s castle. Your service.”

“I already have a mistress.” Barton says, grin gone.

“And am I not superior to her?”

“You are lovelier, but she is kinder.”

Natasha steps forward and slaps him, exacerbating his earlier wounds. He looks up at her, the fear in his eyes replaced by something else.

Natasha brings her lips next to his ear. “Come into my palace again and I will hang you from the walls.”

She nods to James and walks away, her back to the cell as her guard captain snaps the prized bow across his knee.

The Queen of Eddis, formerly Princess Maria, pays a small fortune for the Thief’s release.

When Natasha is twenty Baron Von Doom gathers enough support amongst the barons to force her into an engagement. He gives her chunky diamond earrings set in platinum for a gift. She smiles sweetly at him, only a slight tightness around her eyes giving away her true feelings. He kisses her hand and she pats his cheek with apparent fondness. Von Doom is found dead in his bed the next morning, from natural causes. The fragile alliance between barons falls apart.

When she is twenty-one the diamond earrings she never wore are replaced with emeralds as she sleeps. Next to her jewelry cases are two disassembled traps, with a note informing her how to make them more effective.

When she is twenty-two the Thief of Eddis is caught for the second time.


	2. Chapter 2

When she is twenty-two the Thief of Eddis is caught for the second time.

She waits a week after he’s captured before she goes down to the dungeons. Eddis has offered his weight in gold for his return, worth much more than the information the Thief stole. Natasha wants the money to fix the irrigation channels that run through the olive groves of Attolia. The priests predict drought, which means poor trading, higher food prices and her people going hungry. Still, she cannot let the Thief go to and from her palace as he pleases without losing face with her court.

By the time she reaches the torture chamber, he is already tied to the chair. His head lolls forward, greasy hair covering his face. He is covered in bruises and flea bites; the bites swollen and weeping pus. The dungeons have not been kind to him.

He looks up at her and, for a moment, she could swear he is smiling. “Princess, I hate to be rude, but your hospitality is lacking.”

“Do you know what the traditional punishment for thievery is?” Natasha asks, ignoring the attempt at banter.

She nods to James who sets an iron to heating on the coals.

“It’s almost poetic, cutting off the hand that steals. You’re a southpaw, so that would be your left.” Natasha’s voice is silky smooth, hiding the underlying menace.

“No one has used that punishment for more than a century,” Barton says as if he cannot believe his ears.

“I’m a fan of the classics.” Natasha stands tall and strong in her flowing green dress, out of place with the grimy surrounds.

“I’ll serve you,” Barton offers, eyes wide with fear as the full implications of her threat begin to sink in.

“And would you be loyal to me? I think not.”

“I would be loyal, Your Majesty. I swear it.”

“And did your Queen tell you to say that if you were caught?” Natasha asks.

His silence is answer enough.

“I’m afraid I have to return to basics. I can’t have vermin running around my palace.” Natasha is glad their little game is about to come to an end with her as the victor.

“Please! I’m housebroken, a great dancer and very good at groveling.” He tries to hide the desperation with charm. “When I said I’d serve you, I meant it.”

Some part of Natasha believes him, but she has not stayed on a cursed throne this long by being trusting.

“Make sure the wound is properly cauterized. He needs to be alive by the time he arrives in Eddis. Queen Maria has offered a tidy sum for his return,” she tells Bucky.

“The iron is ready,” Bucky responds, the one man whose loyalty she refuses to doubt.

“Please, Your Majesty. Anything, anything at all. You want it and it’s yours.” Barton is still speaking, still hopes he can change her mind.

“I learned long ago that I’m never going to get what I want,” she says, more to herself than to him.

She nods to Bucky and he brings his sword down. Barton screams. Bucky takes the glowing iron from the coals and cauterizes the wound. Barton is ready for the pain and refuses to scream again, accusing eyes holding hers. She breaks the eye contact first and leaves the room, ignoring the tugging at her heart. It turned to stone long ago.

Natasha receives reports that he’s shut himself into his rooms in Eddis after a long battle with infection. If there are some nights she finds it hard to sleep, well that’s no one’s business but her own. Respect gleams in the eyes of even the most patronizing courtiers and that’s enough of a reason for her to believe her calculations were correct.

When she is twenty-three the barons are again organized. They hunger after her throne but are too wise to force her into marriage. Natasha escapes two assassination attempts before beginning a war against Eddis to give the barons a different target. The Attolian army, ever loyal, follow her into a war against a tiny mountain kingdom that is only too eager to do battle after Attolia maimed its favorite son. The battles are indecisive and the war promises to grind on for years. She uses the opportunity to tax the disloyal barons into submission. After a few strategic deaths and even more bribes, she does the math. For the first time since she’s taken the throne, more barons are loyal to her than not. She still sleeps with four weapons in easy reach.

When she is twenty-four she wakes from a nightmare to find a hook at her throat.

“You’d be surprised what you can steal with one hand, Your Majesty.” Barton’s tone is conversational, as if they were meeting in the gardens under the noonday sun instead of in the dead of night in her chambers.

“You’ll never get out of the palace alive,” she tells him, unafraid.

“I will, and we’ll both live to see the dawn. We’re going to leave through the walls. If we are caught, you die.” His eyes are haunted, dark. She realizes he is perfectly willing to kill her at the cost of his own life if it weakens Attolia in the war against Eddis.

“We’re never going to make it to Eddis without being caught. This is the stupidest plan I’ve ever heard of.” Natasha begins breathing faster to counterfeit fear as her fingers brush the hilt of the knife under her sheets.

“I love stupid plans,” Barton replies with wink that belies his tight hold on her arm. “Now move.”

Natasha does, rising slowly, nightgown hiding her knife. She waits for him to turn away but, before she can strike, he hits her forearm with clinical precision. The knife drops soundlessly on her bed. Barton gives her a hard-edged smile and takes her from her room through the walls that were once her refuge.

When she is twenty-five she negotiates peace terms with Queen Maria of Eddis from an Eddisian prison cell. Maria visits Natasha every day, moving from cold rage to indifference to a wary friendship. They come to a slow agreement, the Attolian barons willing to pay the ransom demand rather than watch one of their competitors take the throne.

Natasha is a prisoner but she still a Queen. She is allowed carefully watched attendance at social gatherings. Eddisian dances are easy to learn and before anyone realizes she’s charmed a third of the gathered nobles, moving with the easy grace that makes the youngsters around her envious. Then the Thief emerges from his retreat in the library and asks her to dance. She accepts. Whispers ripple through the crowd as the Queen and the Thief dance, exchanging polite conversation.

“Enjoying your stay, Your Majesty?” Barton asks.

“I don’t think your Queen likes me.” Natasha says, half joking, half serious.

“You’re a hard woman to like, Your Majesty,” Barton replies.

“I think after multiple imprisonments and kidnapping we can skip the formalities,” Natasha says, attempting a genuine smile.

“Sure thing, princess.”

The Eddisian court bewilders her. The nobility are genuinely loyal to their Queen. Favors are swapped and alliances made without the fatal edge she is so accustomed to. The enemy Queen in their midst is viewed with suspicion instead of hate. The man in front of her was maimed at her order. Still she’s dancing in his arms and enjoying herself as she does it.

Eventually she moves on to her next partner, a wealthy merchant willing to sell Eddisian steel for Attolian olives once the war ends. For the rest of the night she focuses on making the best deal possible for her people.

Barton visits her in her cell to bring her books. He makes her laugh until she cries. She makes the calculated decision to marry an Eddisian as part of the peace treaty. Her concession gains Attolia back an important pass in the negotiations with Eddis. The barons will no longer be able to jostle over her throne and treat her as their potential broodmare. She wears only emeralds on her wedding night.

When she is twenty-six she spends her day holding court, answering pleas and solving disputes while her husband pretends to sleep beside her. She waits until they are alone in her rooms before she starts to yell.

“You could at least pretend to be interested!”

“Why? You make a better ruler than I do,” Clint answers, almost petulantly.

She scowls at him.

“Nat, I really don’t care about whose ancestor claimed a miserable patch of forest first.”

“Anyone would think you don’t want to be King.”

“I don’t.”

“Then why marry me?!”

He looks at her incredulously for a moment, a smile at the edge of his lips. “I thought that was obvious, sweetheart.”

“Oh.”

And they lived happily ever after. Mostly.


End file.
